


Eating Away at Flesh and Soul

by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Decomposing of Living Tissue, Gen, Maggots, Obi-Wan is a Zombie Shark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 10:04:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11289012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/pseuds/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
Summary: The result of me watching Pirates: Dead Men Tell No Tales and falling absolutely in love with fly-ridden dead sharks that attack people.Why? Is that not who you fell head over heels in love with in that movie?





	Eating Away at Flesh and Soul

**Author's Note:**

> There are no spoilers in this for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. None. The storyline here has nothing to do with that movie, except my sudden, overwhelming need for an Obi-Wan Zombie Shark.
> 
> Also, as I was writing this, memories of Childhood Me loving dolphin stories where the boy/man makes friends with the dolphin and loves animals/is a vet came flooding back. Hadn't thought about all of that in a good long while, so it was amusing to see that part of my life again.
> 
> It makes sense the Adult Me would write a story about a man and a dolphin... with the dolphin being a decomposing zombie shark. The apparently contradictory parts of me are finally starting to learn how to live in harmony.

 

 

When Anakin Skywalker found himself an unintended stowaway aboard the Spaniard's ship, he hadn't expected to come nose-to-stink with a dead shark.

A shark that had been dead for quite some time. Its skin was twisted and decayed, revealing putrid muscle beneath. Flies crawled over the carcass, maggots squirming through flesh and out one eye.

_ Why would they keep a rotting shark in their hold? _

No, really,  _ why _ ?

Maybe ghost pirates couldn't  _ smell,  _ but  _ still. _

The creature's chest compressed, gills flared, and Anakin had to breathe heavily through his mouth to keep from retching and potentially revealing his presence on the ship.

_ It's  _ alive _? Dear Force, it's  _ alive _? _

He looked again.

No, definitely dead.

But not freed.

He could feel its suffering, the cruelty of continuously suffocating but never being released, of its body decomposing—

There was no way in hell Anakin could just leave it here. It was an animal suffering, and he couldn't just walk away.

He took a careful step forward, but the eye rolled in his direction and vicious teeth snapped at his leg.

“Whoa,” he soothed. “Easy. How are we going to get you out of here?”

Even a beached shark could do horrific damage, and this one was driven mad with a never-ending pain.

Anakin's efforts to design a way to rescue his new friend had to be set aside as he was discovered.

He couldn't help the shark if he was  _ dead,  _ so he fled the ship as fast as humanly possible—

He looked up from his frantic rowing as he heard the groan of rusted metal. A canon hatch had just been opened, but instead of a gun nosing its way out, a large gray and sick pink shape was thrown out.

_ Well, I got the shark out,  _ Anakin thought with wry terror as he  _ felt  _ the predator honing in on him.  _ I am going to be just as dead as it is here soon. _

For a few painful heartbeats he fought to reach the shore, seeing no sign of the loosed creature.

And then there was just a hint of a flicker in the Force and something massive lunged for the dinghy, flipping over it to snap its teeth at Anakin's head.

He ducked, staring up at the beast just two inches from his face, and found himself stunned by the majesty the broken soul still possessed, a grace and beauty Anakin would have expected to be impossible. Water drops fell from its cruelly rotted flanks, glinting in the sun and gilding it gold and rose.

It hit the water on the other side, sinking beneath and Anakin kept very still in the center of the boat, waiting to see what its next move would be.

_ Oh, you glorious creature. _

It filled Anakin with determination.

He  _ would  _ not die here, and neither would the animal that had suffered too much, too long.

_ We're both breaking free. _

 

* * *

 

He had some nasty gashes. A couple on his calf, one along his arm, and a rather wicked one down his eye that would likely scar—

But he was on land and safe for the moment—

And his new companion was resting in a sling hung in a water trough.

It was the best Anakin could do for now, but it had to be better than when Anakin had been dragging his friend home across the sand in a makeshift trevois. The shark had alternated between struggling to drag the one inflicting such agony on it into the same agony and lying utterly still except for the tortured straining of its gills and a keening whimper of anguish that did more to hurt Anakin than the jagged bones and teeth.

“We have to find a name for you,” Anakin announced as he threaded a needle to begin stitching himself closed. That one leg wound needed it.

A dark eye glared at him through the transparisteel. Anakin considered as he worked, keeping up a steady patter of words to distract himself from the familiar pain of patching himself up.

“You looked like one of the kings of old for a moment out there. And I have no way of telling, but your soul to me feels like a he.” Anakin winced against his needle, took a breath, and kept going. “I want to find something regal. Something deadly. But something that wasn't the aggressor. You aren't evil, are you. You're just hurt and terribly abused. Obi-Car was the king who died of the wasting disease, regal to the end, but Sai-Wan is the prince who only harmed when backed into a corner, and returned from terrible misuse to lead his nation in spite of the stigma that surrounded him. He never lost his gentleness, or his willingness to kill if cornered.”

Still the shark glared.

“How about Obi-Wan?”  
He clipped the ends of his work, grimaced a smile down at it, and stretched out on the floor of his small shelter of a home.

“I've got to wait a minute, or I'll pass out when I stand up,” he murmured, voice a bit slurred. “We'll see what we can do for you as soon as I can manage.”  
Unconsciousness claimed him anyway—

And still Obi-Wan watched.

 

* * *

 

Anakin became accustomed to the almost dog-like throat-whines of pain from his new friend. He would whisper apologies, soothe him with a gentle hand and soft voice, and continue his efforts to extract the maggots.

Obi-Wan writhed away for the millionth time, baring teeth and trying to rip Anakin's arm off.

“They're only making it worse,” Anakin explained, patient but exhausted and drenched from the effort. “I know it's terrible, but I'm helping you. Please believe I'm trying to help you.”  
There was only a suspicious gleam in that eye, a helpless threat that made Anakin sad because of how unlikely Obi-Wan was to be able to carry through with any of his defensive desires.

_ Unless I make a mistake.  _

And given he was the only occupant of this small island and the ship with supplies only came by once a year, Anakin knew he couldn't afford to make any big mistakes.

He readjusted the sling, drawing Obi-Wan a little more out of the water.

It would increase the pain, but the shark was refusing to hold still, and the more he could move, the more likely to harm Anakin he was.

“I'm sorry. I'll put you back in once we've gotten rid of ten of these. Okay? We've already got four. Just six more, Obi-Wan, and we can stop for the day.”

Anakin gripped the tweezers again and reached into one of the wounds.

Obi-Wan shivered in pain but he didn't strike out.

“Good boy,” Anakin crooned. “So good for me. That's it. We're almost done. It'll get better, I promise.”

There.

Another parasite in the little metal bowl on the floor.

Anakin smiled, dribbled water over the skin, and went for another one.

“Some day, they'll all be gone. No more eggs, no more flies. I can't heal your wounds, but at least they won't be being  _ eaten _ . And maybe... someday...”

Anakin's voice dropped low with longing. “Maybe someday I'll take you out into the ocean with me, and we can swim together.”

It was a foolish idea, a terrible one, one he  _ shouldn't  _ be considering—

But he longed for companionship, and he wanted to watch this majestic creature speed through the sea the way he was  _ meant  _ to.

If Obi-Wan could survive all that he'd lost, all that had been done to him, maybe Anakin could too.

_ His body looks the way my heart feels. _

_ Maybe we can somehow find healing in each other. _

 

* * *

 

That dream seemed ever more fanciful as the months slipped by. Obi-Wan was not, not,  _ not _ interested in being friends.

Not.

Anakin sighed heavily through his nose. “ _ Stop  _ it, I feed you  _ every damn day,  _ you're just being  _ petty  _ now! You  _ like  _ what I bring you, you can stop  _ pretending  _ you hate me!”

Obi-Wan leveled him a baleful stare.

“What does it  _ take  _ with you to get you out of a sulk?” Anakin demanded. “You're not ready to be released yet!” The thought gave his heart a pang. To lose his grumpy roommate... “You go out there, and you'll be attacked by any meat-loving fish, and the ones that are too small for you to keep  _ away _ ? You'll get eaten alive. Not to mention your fellow sharks who will fripping  _ smell  _ you. I get that you're brave and you fight even when you  _ can't,  _ but there's no point in  _ picking  _ a losing battle if you can avoid it!”

Obi-Wan's tail smacked the side of his tank.

“You do  _ not  _ have to go out in a blaze of glory. You can  _ find  _ a reason to  _ live again _ ! Listen, things look  _ bad  _ right now, and they  _ are.  _ I won't deny you're in terrible shape and have been for as long as you can remember. But there are  _ good things  _ out there, and they're worth fighting for.”

Careful not to get within reach, Anakin lightly stroked his hand from behind Obi-Wan's head to the leading edge of his back's ragged fin, avoiding the open sores.

“I can't promise the pain will ever go away, but I  _ can  _ promise there can be good found in the midst of the bad. You miss your school, I don't doubt. I miss—” Anakin's throat closed.

_ Damn it. _

He closed his eyes against the pain, pulling his hand back and leaning against the tank as his heart broke all over again.

A single tear slipped down his nose and fell into Obi-Wan's water.

 

* * *

 

Anakin had trouble sleeping that night, tossing and turning.

He'd opened a subject with Obi-Wan he had been resolutely avoiding for years, the words said to the shark haunting his mind.

If, when he finally reached the point of utter exhaustion and his mind numbed into sleep, he felt the hesitant brush of a mind against his own, he discarded it as a dream.

And when morning came, he was about ready to just give the hell up.

Maybe he wouldn't go down to the tidepools to cut his hands and feet catching fish for Obi-Wan's breakfast. Maybe he'd just leave yesterday's offerings in there, let him eat the meal he'd turned his nose up to the day before.

Maybe Anakin wouldn't eat either.

Maybe he would just sit here and stare at the sun as it crept up the sky.

A dull thud announced Obi-Wan was starting his complaining for the day.

Anakin ignored it, kept his back to him.

Another thud.

Another.

Another.

Dear Force, he was going to drive the human mad with the steady, insistent thumping of his tail.

“ _ What _ ?” Anakin whined, turning around.

He found yesterday's untouched offering gone, and a dark eye sparkling up at him with more life than Anakin had ever seen in him.

“So the day I want to just sit and wait to die you decide to eat. Fantastic. Good boy. Not that you the frip care what I have to say about any of it.”

Obi-Wan pulsed in the tank, a rhythmic, careful writhing that soon had the water sloshing out in great splashes.

“ _ Really _ ?” Anakin cried. “You  _ know  _ you can't breathe when you get the water too low!”

Soon the shark could no longer get leverage and lay on the bottom, air whining around the gills that were never meant to function outside of water.

Anakin's mind claimed he wanted to just walk away and leave him, but he found his hands reaching for the old bucket, found his feet padding down to the waterline.

He couldn't leave Obi-Wan to himself.

It just wasn't in Anakin to let the stupid creature suffer its self-inflicted torment alone.

This time, as he stroked his hand along the broken body, the shark didn't lash out. It lay still.

And when he brought back fish, Obi-Wan ate.

Anakin stared in baffled amazement as Obi-Wan turned the water around him red with his enthusiasm. “What is wrong with you?” What could  _ possibly  _ be pushing the shark to behave so abnormally?

“Okay.” Anakin gave a grim nod. “Yeah, okay. I'll put in a little work on the big tank today.”  
He tromped around the back of his leanto and took up tools one more time.

“You can't breathe until you're moving all the time, so even though the trough is better than what you had before, you're still suffering.”

_ Why should I care? I should just chop his head off and be done with it. Feed him to the gulls. _

But as he heard bird wings flapping again he dropped everything to race back and beat the avians away.

And when he caught one of the arrogant sons of sand he broke its neck and dropped it into the tank.

He could almost swear Obi-Wan smiled before he devoured his snack.

“If your appetite gets back to normal, I'm going to be hunting and fishing all day long,” Anakin complained, though he wasn't sure it would be a bad thing.

Every moment spent investing in Obi-Wan was one where he wasn't staring blankly at the sea and drowning in what he'd lost.

 

* * *

 

The little cove was fully blocked off from the sea now, and made as shark-safe as possible. Anakin had traversed every square inch of it, searching the sides and floor for anything that might harm Obi-Wan.

As Anakin moved to gather Obi-Wan in his sling, he felt more alive than he had in years.

“Can't wait until you see your new home. Don't worry, it's only a fifteen-second walk from here.”

Without the desperation and adrenaline gifted to him when he'd brought Obi-Wan home, it proved much more difficult to lift him out of the water trough than it had been to dump him  _ in. _

It ended with them sprawled on the ground, both gasping for air, Obi-Wan lying across Anakin's chest and scarily close to his face.

Heart in his throat, Anakin squirmed away, expecting to die horribly any second—

But Obi-Wan didn't retaliate. He watched with his one good eye, the scarred one out of sight.

“Okay,” Anakin breathed, voice shaking. “Thank you for not hurting me.”

Obi-Wan didn't respond.

Anakin re-worked his travois and dragged Obi-Wan onto it.

Not once did the shark snap at him or try to hit him with his tail.

A short trek later Anakin crouched by the cove's edge and tried to figure out a way to drop Obi-Wan in without damaging either of them or the human falling in.

_ If you were a dolphin, I'd climb in, then hold you while I let the sling fall away. _

That seemed spectacularly unwise given the circumstances.

_ However, if I die, there's enough gaps for fish to find their way in for him to eat. _

It was a stupid idea. He knew it was, even as he slipped into the water.

_ You trying to get yourself killed?  _ part of him demanded.

The other part, the much, much larger part, sent back,  _ Of course. Why aren't you? _

He pulled Obi-Wan into his arms, backing into the pool and letting the water hold Obi-Wan's weight.

The shark lay still in his arms, not trying to get away.

_ That's because it's going to shred you the moment you move!  _

_ Again: So what? _

Anakin pulled the sling away, freeing the shark and taking a careful step back as Obi-Wan continued to float.

And then the shark was no longer  _ there _ anymore.

Anakin's heart surged into his throat again as he saw flickers of movement beneath the water, and then the shape was speeding towards him and there was no way he could get out in time so he just stood there—

Obi-Wan arced up over his head, spinning once as he went, belly to the sky and then hidden beneath the water again.

Well, if he was going to die, it was going to be a hell of a spectacular show beforehand.

And then all was still, and though he looked around, he couldn't see his friend.

_ Where did you go? _

Something smooth nudged his palm where it hung by his side beneath the water.

_ Of course you're behind me. _

Anakin turned around slowly, careful not to spook the creature who was blind on one side.

“What do you think?” Anakin asked.

And Obi-Wan made it abundantly clear what he thought.

 

* * *

 

_ There are legends of a boy who lost everything. _

_I do not know if they are true._

_All I know is that one sunset I saw a shark that should not be still moving swimming along the reef, a man clinging to his dorsal fin as they leisurely explored the color and vibrancy of the waters near a tiny island._

_All I saw was the shark bringing him to the surface when the man needed to breathe, the tender caress of the man's fingers against the damaged creature's skin._

_There was a harmony between them like I've never seen in my life before._

_I will never tell where I saw this island; they deserve their solitude._

_If and when they're ready to allow others into the heaven they've carved out of pure hell, they'll do so._

_And if not?_

_I doubt it will dim the vibrancy of the life they've found together._

 

 


End file.
